Accessibility and customisation in the Trilogy: Definitive Editions

[IVCavalcade]

One thing I haven't really seen discussed yet is how accessible and customisable these games will be. Accessibility is, rightly so, becoming more of a focus of game development these days and it would be great to see options added to accommodate different needs and preferences. I read a thread a while back where somebody explained how they were never able to finish gang territories in San Andreas because they're colour-blind, unable to differentiate between Vagos and Grove St colours on the map. As a fully 'typical' gamer, I never really understood until recently how many people are excluded from games due to various cognitive, physical and intellectual issues. High profile examples like TLOU2 and Psychonauts 2 have really put a (g) spotlight on this area and it should become industry standard in my opinion.

 

As well as support for customisable control schemes and features for accessibility - like an invincibility mode, colour-blind-friendly options, and more - to enable more gamers to experience the fantastic stories of these games, I would also like to see options for us fans of the classic games to play the remasters in a way that suits us. Many people are excited for the GTA V style controls that are being advertised, yet I would personally much prefer to play with the classic control scheme, as it is so deeply ingrained in my brain and it would simply feel strange to me to aim and drive with the trigger buttons.

 

I hope they include a 'classic' HUD option which reverts the weapon wheel to a more traditional weapon scrolling system, and other similar options that allow us to decide how we experience the games. Perhaps a 'hardcore' mode which removes the ability to instantly restart a mission once you've failed it for those looking for a challenge more authentic to the originals. On the topic of missions, it would also be nice to have the ability to replay missions after you've completed them - like in V - or at least the ability to view the cutscenes like you can in VCS.

 

Certain features, such as free camera control on controllers for 3 and VC, are objective improvements that I'm pretty sure nobody would complain about, but many of the other tweaks and 'improvements' are more subjective and I really hope we are able to customise our experience to suit us.

 

Am I alone in this, or is it something that you guys would like to see in these new Definitive Editions?

 

(I also just want to emphasise that accessibility options, when done correctly, don't compromise or dumb-down the core experience - they are strictly optional features)

Edited October 26, 2021 by Chazza354

[Moosh89]

I recently tweeted to GSG asking if they could comment on any accessibility features, so you are not alone! Their Community Manager did "like" my tweet but I haven't heard anything in response yet.

I'm a physically disabled gamer, and while I enjoyed playing the original trilogy between PC and PS2, I did struggle quite a bit, particularly in SA with the gym minigames or pedaling the bike. Sometimes I had trouble with driveby shooting mechanics or shooting from bikes in VC/SA.

I'm looking forward to the quality improvements to all three such as weapon/radio wheels, rotating camera, better navigation and modern shooter controls, but I do hope there's a level of customization to the controls as well as assists for toggles and "tap to holds". Subtitle options as well, I love subtitles and speaker labels!

May I share a link to this post on Twitter and tag GSG and Rockstar?

[IVCavalcade]

2 hours ago, Moosh89 said:

Their Community Manager did "like" my tweet but I haven't heard anything in response yet

That's promising - so at the very least it's something the community manager is aware of and will hopefully put forward to the team. Even if it wasn't considered before, they can patch things in if they recognise a demand for these features

 

2 hours ago, Moosh89 said:

May I share a link to this post on Twitter and tag GSG and Rockstar?

Of course, it would be good to try to get an answer or at least draw attention to the need for accessibility features. Hopefully they will respond in a satisfactory way.

 

2 hours ago, Moosh89 said:

I'm a physically disabled gamer, and while I enjoyed playing the original trilogy between PC and PS2, I did struggle quite a bit, particularly in SA with the gym minigames or pedaling the bike. Sometimes I had trouble with driveby shooting mechanics or shooting from bikes in VC/SA.

Thanks for this insight - the gym minigames and drive-by mechanics were areas I hadn't even considered - that makes a lot of sense and it's important to me that you - and other gamers with disabilities - are able to fully experience all the content that these games have to offer.

[GhettoJesus]

6 hours ago, Chazza354 said:

I hope they include a 'classic' HUD option which reverts the weapon wheel to a more traditional weapon scrolling system, and other similar options that allow us to decide how we experience the games. Perhaps a 'hardcore' mode which removes the mission replay feature for those looking for a challenge more authentic to the originals.

I think these toggles would be a great idea to recapture the original feel for people who prefer to keep it more classic. They could also keep the HUD disable feature to add extra difficulty for those who seek extra challenge.

[Moosh89]

I know its gonna be really hard to not jump in a vehicle and hit "X" to accelerate, "Square" to reverse at first, but I am looking forward to using the triggers for driving lol

[Kirsty]

Great thread. A lot of those options are something that should be commonplace for all games these days, TLOU2 had a bunch of stuff like that when I was exploring the settings. A lot of discussion always ends up at "hur hur you shouldn't make games easier, play them as intended" when someone brings up accessibility, but people don't realise it's not just about being able to win bossfights easily, it's about how many people are eliminated from playing to the best of their ability because of health condiitons and so forth. Hopefully there's some consideration for Definitive.

[Spider-Vice]

RDR2 made some good strides in this with colourblind modes and some other accessibility options, it would be great to see Rockstar's games do it in a much more advanced way like The Last of Us 2 did. I'm honestly not sure we're going to see it in this remaster project, perhaps we'll only see fully-fledged detailed accessibility options with the next mainline game, but it would be good to see some of it added into the Trilogy Definitive Edition.

[BilalKurd]

Hopefully if it's lacking in some respects they can add it with a patch. I also seem to remember that a modder created some additional accessibility options for cyberpunk, so if the Trilogy can be modded that could help too.

Edited October 25, 2021 by BilalKurd
Added missing word

[Moosh89]

1 minute ago, BilalKurd said:

Hopefully if it's lacking in some respects they can add it with a patch. I also seem to remember that a modder created some additional accessibility options for cyberpunk, so the Trilogy can be modded that could help too.

This. Not forgetting how I wasn't able to reel in big fish in RDR2 prior to me hounding Rockstar, being sent in circles through Support and then finally me realizing I could just contact the UI Director from RDR2 who very kindly forwarded my email to the guy who replaced him when he moved studios after the game shipped, to Rockstar adding "Hold to Reel" in their next update in December 2019. While I hope they'll be a bit more open to accessibility requests, I also hope I don't have to find "back door access" to get past their "we will consider it" messages I got for a year from Support. Turns out my email being forwarded was the first time the appropriate department heard about it, so Support didn't actually do anything.

Again, that was Rockstar. Maybe Grove Street Games will be more receptive

[IVCavalcade]

Really pleased to see that there is a good deal of accessibility support and awareness from this community and it's leadership - thanks for all the kind and productive responses.

 

28 minutes ago, Kirsty said:

people don't realise it's not just about being able to win bossfights easily, it's about how many people are eliminated from playing to the best of their ability because of health conditions and so forth.

Yesss exactly this, well said

 

11 minutes ago, Spider-Vice said:

RDR2 made some good strides in this with colourblind modes and some other accessibility options

Tbh, even though I played through RDR2 on release, I wasn't aware/forgot about these features - that's definitely very promising for VI, and hopefully some of that philosophy trickles down to the re-releases of old project, like this upcoming Trilogy: Definitive Edition. Surely this is one of the areas where a remaster can really serve to improve/update on the original. I love the thought of people who weren't able to play the original releases finally having a way in with the Definitive Editions. That would be awesome.

 

48 minutes ago, Moosh89 said:

I am looking forward to using the triggers for driving

Based on discussions I've seen, I'm fairly sure I'm in the minority when it comes to wanting to use the old control scheme. But hopefully they can include this option for old stubborn farts like me who are stuck in their ways haha.

[Moosh89]

I also would like to add, I hope that Subtitles with Speaker labels also have a toggle for "Closed Captions" where pedestrians and the radio (maybe song lyrics too?) are also displayed because the pedestrians and radio stations have some of the best dialogue that those who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing will miss. I realize it may take up too much screen space for some players if the sizes are actually legible so having the option for Subtitles and then deeper Closed Captions is preferred.

[IVCavalcade]

1 minute ago, Moosh89 said:

I hope that Subtitles with Speaker labels also have a toggle for "Closed Captions" where pedestrians and the radio (maybe song lyrics too?)

Another fantastic point that I hadn't considered - a lot of the ambience, detail, atmosphere, and character of the game is missed if you're unable to hear what's going on around you with the audio. In regards to taking up too much of the screen, I think developers really need to try to cover all bases and give us as many options as they can think of:

 

For CC, for example: scalable text size/opacity, depth of CC, and where on the screen the Closed Captions are displayed should be something that can be tailored to an individuals needs. Accessibility and customisation in games is all about options, options, options for me. You can never have too many options when it comes to this stuff because there are so many different combinations of preferences and needs.

[StarJet905]

I think what some older players might appreciate is an option to turn off the quick retry for missions

[IVCavalcade]

53 minutes ago, StarJet905 said:

I think what some older players might appreciate is an option to turn off the quick retry for missions

Yea I agree, I suggested this in my original post 

[StarJet905]

23 minutes ago, Chazza354 said:

Yea I agree, I suggested this in my original post 

Sorry, I misundersood. I thought "mission replay" meant replaying missions later. But reading through it again now, it's obvious what you meant. 

But now that makes me think it would be nice to have an option to replay missions we have already played.

[IVCavalcade]

1 hour ago, StarJet905 said:

I thought "mission replay" meant replaying missions later

To be fair, I could make that clearer, mission replay could mean both - I'll edit my post. Yeah, having a mission replay feature like we have in V would be cool.

[IVCavalcade]

Ok so the game has been launched early for some people on Sony platforms, there are people streaming and I was excited to see there is an 'accessibility' tab, but it looks disappointingly minimal. Literally only subtitles and text size. 

[BilalKurd]

Damn, what a shame

[Moosh89]

Bravo on the subtitle sizes, I maxed them out expecting them to still be small and damn, they were huge! I backed it down just a tick or two above default.

Wish they including Speaker labels, hopefully a relatively easy addition in an upcoming patch.

I still want pedestrian subtitles! Some of the things they say add a lot of charm and life to the world.

I'm only playing GTA III at the moment, so no workout minigames yet but seeing the footage of menus from all three titles is virtually identical, I want to see tap assists and toggles added for swimming, cycling and workouts. Not sure how this would work with the button alteration of taps for some workouts, but I trust GSG can come up with a solution to simplify these games.

A bigger ask would be complete controller remapping, but very desirable for accessibility.

[IVCavalcade]

14 minutes ago, Moosh89 said:

Bravo on the subtitle sizes, I maxed them out expecting them to still be small and damn, they were huge! I backed it down just a tick or two above default.

I think the accessibility options are pretty poor, but this aspect is at least a start - hopefully they will improve these options in an upcoming patch

[Nassyy]

Any idea on how to see the game files? I would like to see if we can edit the radio stations.